Cape Cod Harvest

Heather Wysocki

Saturday

Jun 30, 2007 at 2:00 AMJun 30, 2007 at 11:55 AM

When writing a book about Cape Cod, there's a lot of history to choose from. Throw in local legends, family folklore and saloon stories and you've got thousands, if not millions, of pages to choose from. So what's a Cape historian to do?

When writing a book about Cape Cod, there's a lot of history to choose from. Throw in local legends, family folklore and saloon stories and you've got thousands, if not millions, of pages to choose from. So what's a Cape historian to do?

If you're Jim Coogan and Jack Sheedy, purveyors of all things Cape Cod, you embellish. And though many Cape purists might object to their liberal takes on these tales, others will enjoy the less steadfast versions of new and recognized stories alike.

The authors, who have penned two other Cape-centric works together (Cape Companion and Cape Cod Voyage) and countless others solo, this time have chosen fun over fact, mixing an eccentric bunch of Cape stories that both sixth-generation Cape Codders and washashores will find entertaining.

Cape diehards will love the little-known facts about the peninsula and its islands (did you know that Martha's Vineyard was named for a deceased daughter of Governor Bradford of Provincetown and Plymouth?), while less-savvy readers will find the antics and fates of recognizable figures like Squanto, the explorer Bartholomew Gosnold and the Crosby family a great read.

Despite the entertainment value, though, many of these stories are really only that -- stories. Often throughout the book's 195 pages, it is easy to forget that the authors used history as a background. These tales of early settlers' schemes on the sea and on land could only be described as "quasi-history."

Fully aware of their unique take on history, the authors warn once in the amusing foreword and again halfway through the book that, "This is not necessarily a Cape Cod history book."

If the book's choice of semi-truths over proven history is forgiven, though, it becomes a very interesting twist on the Cape's very classic story. Coogan and Sheedy take the reader from the Cape's first settlers to its more recent history, making sure to add interesting details at every turn of the page.

The authors' lack of seriousness, while refreshing when one thinks about the hundreds of drier books about Cape Cod to choose from, leaves a few things to be desired. It's almost as if the book's easygoing manner with the stories within it translates into the same attitude about writing style.

Although in some cases this is a good thing (the casual language adds to the "fireside" feel of the book), in other places the lack of care is a bit less endearing (calling the Mashpee Wampanoags the "Mashpee Natives").

Language aside, some of the lore in Cape Cod Harvest is irresistible. What other history book combines stories of Plimoth Rock -- describing it as "a symbol for a breed of chickens and even... the brand for a type of working man's pants" -- with lore about wolves, storms and sailors using such flair?

In the end, Cape Cod Harvest is an interesting mix of tales about early settlers' unique lifestyles. As long as the authors' warning that they liberally mixed fact with fiction is remembered, this collection can take anyone back into time and teach even the most salty of readers a thing or two about their historic home.